Adds the fifth Chinese destination to its global route map
Colombo, December 9, 2014:Sri Lanka’s national carrier and the oneworld member, SriLankan Airlines, now gives its passengers the opportunity to explore Kunming, when it added the fifth Chinese destination to its global route map on December 1, 2014.
Connecting from Colombo, SriLankan passengers can discover the best kept secrets of China’s “City of Eternal Spring”, which is also the capital and the largest city in Yunnan Province of South West China. The city is home to several universities, museums, galleries and other important economic, cultural, and educational institutions, making it a popular destination among both leisure and business travellers.
Signifying its strong presence in the Indian Sub-Continent, SriLankan currently operates triple daily flights from Chennai, twice daily flights from Tiruchirappalli and Cochin, eleven weekly flights from Bangalore and daily flights from Trivandrum, Mumbai and Delhi, to Colombo– providing its passengers easy connectivity and convenience of three weekly flights to Kunming, departing Colombo on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1835 hrs, and arriving in Kunming at 0150 hrs. The flight departs Kunming at 0255 hrs to arrive in Colombo at 0545 hrs.
Passengers will also get the opportunity to enjoy the relaxing ambience and easy reclining seating on board SriLankan Airlines’A320 aircraft that will be operated on the route.
In addition to the new destination, SriLankan currently operates a total of 15 weekly flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Canton and Hong Kong via Colombo.
SriLankan Airlines, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Kapila Chandrasena said, “SriLankan Airlines has always viewed the Far East as one of its priority markets where a gradual increase in the number of tourist arrivals has driven the airline to look into more expansion opportunities to cater to the growing demand as well as to motivate more travellers from both regions to explore the beauty of the two destinations. Moreover, SriLankan has been constantly enhancing its product and services to meet the demands of the modern day traveller. As a result, the first all new A330-300 aircraft which was added to our fleet recently as part of our wide-body fleet renewal programme, will be assigned primarily on the Far Eastern Routes such as Bangkok, Tokyo, Canton and Beijing.”
“China is very much part of the long term strategy of SriLankan to evolve its network. In addition to our scheduled operations to China, SriLankan currently operates a weekly charter flight to Chongqing which will continue till mid-December until we resume operations in January next year.”
Elaborating further on the Airlines’ expansion plans, Mr. Chandrasena added, “SriLankan had operated Charter flights to Kunming in the past, and this initiative comes into being after various evaluations and many tourism promotional activities conducted in the region by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau.”
In April this year, SriLankan Airlines started operating eight direct flights a week to Beijing and Shanghai and out of which four flights operate via the country’s second international airport, Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport.